The Vergara/Welch lawsuit isn’t about tenure. It’s about union busting and privatizing as much of the school system in the U.S. as possible. It’s about vast amounts of money, none of which would make any sense to most of us. There are about 275,000 public school teachers in California. Not all of us should be […]

In a disturbing bit of news getting out to today in the Vergara v Calif. case, it appears that data quoted by L.A. Superior Court judge Rolf Treu doesn’t actually exist. In short, there is no data to back up his ruling on tenure. Jordan Weissmann of Slate, called Arizona State professor emeritus of Education […]

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge, Rolf Treu, issued a tentative decision in a lawsuit known as Vergara vs. California, regarding tenure rules in California. In his tentative decision, Treu found in favor of Vergara. Headlines in several newspapers read ‘Tenure Rules Unconstitutional in California” or some variation of that. It is important to note […]

In a never ending story, in a never ending attempt to make money, the “educational reform” movement, such as it is, will target tenure rules and push for private control of education in California, again. In his column in the Sacramento Bee, Dan Walters outlined the probable upcoming attacks. Cloaked in the mantle of school reform, […]

Autumn blew into our area with great fanfare on September 22. A bit of wind, rain, and snow up in the mountains brought the season to us in grand fashion. As autumn deepens, some really cool things are going to happen, some things that all of us marvel at. The long days get replaced by […]

It’s summer time, and here we are in the throes of a heat bubble. It is hot, even where I live in the mountains. This is the time of year that children really enjoy. Hot or not, it’s their time. The schedule is whatever they can make it, and what ever the parental units […]

Over and over I am asked about young children and school. When should my little one start Kindergarten? What about transitional Kindergarten? When should my child start reading? Is there something wrong, my 4 year old isn’t reading? And on it goes. Most of the answers that I hear which push early everything are put […]

There is no simple way to describe how schools receive money and are funded in the U.S. The entire process is an Alice in Wonderland experience, which is to say that falling down the rabbit hole could very well make more sense to the average person. First, it is vitally important to understand that nothing […]

When spring nudges winter aside, the opportunities for learning are many, and quite a lot of it happens outside. Spring isn’t a static event that is the same everywhere. In different parts of the country, spring can either mean that flowers have started blossoming, birds have begun to sing early in the morning, and trees […]

It seems as though there is a problem with high achieving high school seniors who come from limited means and the colleges at which they apply. An analysis of every high school student who took the SAT was conducted by Caroline Hoxby of Stanford and Christopher Avery of Harvard. They have many years as education […]